Army Pvt. Danny Chen allegedly took his own life in Afghanistan after he was abused by his fellow soldiers and superiors on an almost daily basis in what has been described as racial hazing. On Tuesday, Chen’s sergeant, Adam Holcomb, was found not guilty of negligent homicide but sentenced to 30 days in a military jail for lesser charges. Holcomb was the first of eight soldiers court-martialed in Chen’s death. We’re joined by...

We get reaction to two photographs published by the Los Angeles Times that show U.S. soldiers posing with the corpses and body parts of dead Afghans. "I think (the photos) shock us actually more than they shock Afghans," says journalist Anand Gopal. "From the Afghan perspective, we’ve had troops urinating on corpses, a massacre of 17 civilians, air strikes, night raids, troops cutting off fingers for sport, and so, for...

We look at the controversial video, "Kony 2012," that targets Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a group notorious for kidnapping children, forcing boys to become fighters, and using girls as sex slaves in Central Africa. Released on March 5, it was viewed more than 100 million times online in just under a week, making it the most viral video in history. We speak with two Ugandans about the impact of the film and...

We continue our conversation with Thomas Drake, who was prosecuted by the Obama administration after challenging mismanagement, waste and possible constitutional violations at the National Security Administration. "I’m the first to acknowledge that there are secrets that must be protected. But not when it comes to government wrongdoing and illegalities and when in fact they’re endangering the safety of our own country,"...

We speak with journalist Neil Shea, who has reported on Afghanistan and Iraq since 2006 for Stars and Stripes and other publications. Shea discusses his experiences witnessing disturbing behavior during his travels with U.S. troops in Afghanistan and offers insight into understanding the massacre of 16 Afghan civilians. "When we cycle our soldiers and marines through these wars that don’t really have a clear purpose over years and...

Amid U.S. vows to stay in Afghanistan until 2014, we speak with Afghan businesswoman Rangina Hamidi, who argues the U.S. presence there makes the security situation worse. "If the U.S. soldiers cannot do their job, as we are now seeing even more evidence of that philosophy, then I think it is only fair to ask them to leave," Hamidi says. After residing in the United States, Hamidi returned to her native Afghanistan shortly after the...

In a new film, psychologist and filmmaker Jan Haaken embeds with military therapists in Afghanistan and at their training at Joint Base Lewis-McChord — where the alleged U.S. shooter of Afghan civilians is from. Lewis-McChord has a controversial record of addressing mental health problems, including high rates of suicides, domestic violence and homicides by soldiers. It was also home to the notorious "kill team," a group of...

The U.S. State Department has taken steps to fire Peter Van Buren, a longtime employee who publicly criticized the Pentagon’s so-called "reconstruction efforts" in Iraq. In 2009 and 2010, he headed two Provincial Reconstruction Teams in rural Iraq. After returning from Iraq, he wrote a book, "We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People." Van Buren has also exposed State...

Official military statistics show that more than 115,000 soldiers have suffered mild traumatic brain injuries since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began. We speak to Joaquin Sapien, who has a done a series of articles on the issue for ProPublica. "The focus of my reporting was on how the military assesses soldiers for whether or not they have suffered a brain injury during their deployment," says Sapien. "And what we found was...